Learn to Fly

I was surprised and disappointed when I read the headline “C-GCC Grounds Flight Majors” in a local newspaper. Almost two months into the semester, school officials at a community college decided to pull the plug on its aviation sciences program. Earlier in the year I had been asked, along with another person (even more qualified […]

At first glance the main changes in the new Cessna Recreational/Private Pilot Training Course appear to be the fact that it’s now an online course and that the course includes specific videos and graphics pertaining to the new Cessna SkyCatcher. But while those features are significant, they are not the biggest or most significant improvements […]

In anticipation of a flurry of training activity surrounding the introduction of the Cessna 162 SkyCatcher, Cessna has launched its Cessna Sport Pilot/Private Pilot Course, which recently won Part 141 approval from the FAA. The Web-based course gives customers, Cessna Pilot Centers (CPCs) and instructors access to materials anywhere there’s an Internet connection. The scenario-based […]

Most pilots know Sporty’s for its famous “Pilot Shop” mail-order pilot supply business. But for more than 20 years, Sporty’s has been not only a place where you can buy “Learn to Fly Here!” signs, but also a place where aspiring pilots can learn to fly. Sporty’s founder and chairman, Hal Shevers, was a flight […]

Whenever new pilots ask me to suggest a first airplane to learn to travel in, the Cessna 182 Skylane is always at the top of my list. My recommendation of the Skylane is especially strong for a pilot new to IFR flying. Part of the reason I believe so firmly in the value of the […]

WxWorx on Wings, the weather products that XM Satellite Weather downlinks from satellites to our cockpits, is provided to XM by Baron Services’ WxWorx. The weather products are collected at two distinct collection points, one located at WxWorx’s headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, and the other inside the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North […]

Every long journey begins with a single step. Once you’ve decided to go ahead and learn to fly-something you may have been dreaming about for years-and selected a flight school and an instructor, you’ve set out on the first leg of a satisfying lifelong journey. You’ve committed your time and money to achieve your goal, […]

Today, the beginning pilot has many paths to choose from when learning to fly. There’s the Light Sport activity, which gets you going in a basic airplane. Then there is the recreational route which expands horizons a bit. Finally there’s the tried and true private certificate that expands piloting privileges by a lot. If initial […]

Looking through the aviation catalogs you can quickly be overwhelmed by the choices of pilot equipment and gear. In Sporty’s Pilot Shop catalog, for example, there are two pages of logbook options and half a page of logbook covers and cases. What’s a pilot to do? When I first started taking flying lessons, I gobbled […]